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What is new about APSA’s siting policy? 
The changes call both for a stronger voice from APSA on issues affecting member rights and our capacity to hold meetings; and on broadening APSA’s view to include how state level policies may shape the city’s ability to guarantee health, safety, and freedom of expression.   In the case of states with laws that severely restrict rights for same-sex unions, the Council  adopted a very significant change in approach, placing the burden, in effect, on the localities to show that, without exception, all APSA members  are welcome.  

What about APSA’s Constitutional requirement that the Association not take positions not immediately concerned with its direct purpose to encourage the study of political science?  
Among APSA’s major tools for encouraging the study of political science are its meetings.  The expanded focus in APSA on how state legal restrictions, as evaluated on a city-by-city basis, gives the Association a carefully formulated tool to assess whether state laws and local implementation of them create a clear pattern of discrimination that substantially impedes members from freely participating in APSA meetings.  The new commitment to public and scholarly engagement on issues affecting our meetings is also fully consistent with APSA’s mission.   APSA members and all political scientists are actively encouraged by APSA Constitutional language to engage with public issues, and the new policy calls on APSA to expand those opportunities. 

Did the Council take into account member comments in considering the new policy? 
Yes, all Council members had access to all 850 individual member comments, plus comments from Organized Sections and APSA committees, submitted in response to the request for feedback (all individual comments were made anonymous before being made available to the Council).  These comments are summarized in detail in the Siting Committee report noted above.  

Will the membership have access to the compilation of member comments? 
Because members were promised confidentiality, and the purpose of the feedback process was to guide the Council decision about the range of members’ views on the policy question, the Council has opted not to release the comments.  They are categorized and summarized in the Council Siting Committee report that is available to members.  

What are other Associations doing in response to the kind of legislation that Louisiana has passed restricting recognition of same-sex unions? 
To our knowledge only the American Psychological Association has made a statement on this issue.  APA has determined, similar to APSA, that they shall consider the nature of the public policy with regard to sexual orientation discrimination of states and other jurisdictions as one relevant factor when making decisions about meetings and other contractual agreements." 

Could APSA legally terminate its contracts with New Orleans Hotels because of state Constitutional provisions about sexual orientation? 
The language in APSA’s contracts with hotels in New Orleans is based on APSA policy in effect since well before 2003.  The Association’s long-standing focus on city practices derives from recognition that many localities have sodomy laws on the books that are not enforced, and that APSA needed a means to act if they became enforced in the cities where we met.  There is simply no way to know in advance what the outcome would be if APSA acted to apply the contract language in the current situation in the state of Louisiana and in the city of New Orleans.  Presumably, the hotels would claim that the APSA contract language was originally meant only to be city specific; that the contract language is city-specific; and that the city itself has not acted to violate members’ rights - in fact if anything it has resisted state law, including winning a recent lawsuit protecting same-sex couples’ health care benefits. Were APSA to seek to change its meeting site for 2012and leave New Orleans, it would of course contest this interpretation. The issue would be decided in the courts or by settlement.  In acting to stay in New Orleans, the APSA Council did not speak to the implications of this outcome, one way or the other.